WTZQ AND SUNDAY MORNING HYMN TIME PRESENT
THE CHURCH BULLETIN BOARD
Local and out of town announcements for special services and gospel concerts are listed – along with local church and club announcements for regular weekly or monthly events.
If you have something you would like listed on WTZQ’s Church Bulletin Board send it via email to wtzqchurchbulletins@gmail.com
Special Notice: If your church has special services or singings coming up that you would like to promote on the Sunday Morning Hymn Time Page of WTZQ.COM and to have announced on the Sunday Morning Hymn Time Radio Program –please send an e-mail to: wtzqchurchbulletins@gmail.com
Saturday, June 14
Saturday, June 28
Saturday, July 12
Each seminar is from 1-3 pm at the church located at 2005 Brevard Road in Hendersonville.This is an Interfaith and community event and is free to attend.To sign up, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
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Learn about Flat Rock History: Tours Continue for St. John in the Wilderness
Exploring local history is available this summer on select Saturday mornings with tours of the Episcopal Church of St. John in the Wilderness in Flat Rock.
The guided tours of the church are led by church docents. The historically significant churchyard contains graves of distinguished political figures and local citizens as well as those of unnamed 19th-century enslaved people.
Tours start inside the Carriage Door entrance of the Church promptly at 11 a.m. and last about an hour. They are available on the first and third Saturdays of the month through September. October through December, tours will be held on the third Saturday only. There will be no rain dates and participants are encouraged to wear comfortable shoes.
“One of the joys of attending a beautiful holy place like St. John in the Wilderness is sharing it with our visitors. Our history is intertwined not just with the history of Flat Rock, but with that of coastal South Carolina, the home of our founders and earliest congregants,” said lead docent Polly Morrice.
The tours are free, but reservations must be made online through the church’s website, www.stjohnflatrock.org/tours. Space is limited for each tour.
“As docents, we strive to communicate the sweep of what happened and how it shaped us, the good and the sometimes painful,” Morrice reflected. “We do like to remind visitors that St. John is not a museum, but a vibrant, welcoming church. We’re still moving forward and welcome all who would like to make more history with us.”
The church is located at 1895 Greenville Highway. For more information call the church office at 828-693-9783 or visit www.stjohnflatrock.org.
St. John in the Wilderness History
In 1827, Charles Baring, a member of the Baring banking family of England, built a home in Flat Rock. He and his wife, Susan, wanted a summer place to escape the oppressive heat, humidity, and malaria of the South Carolina Low Country where they lived.
The Barings built a chapel on the property of their newly constructed home. Soon after it was built, the small wooden structure burned down in a woods fire. In 1833, work began on a second church built of handmade brick.
In August 1836, the Barings deeded their chapel to the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, and 20 members of the Flat Rock “summer colony” of Low Country planters and merchants formed an Episcopal parish. In the 1890’s, St. John in the Wilderness became part of the Diocese of Western North Carolina; it is the oldest parish in that diocese.
With almost all its congregation traveling home to the Low Country after the summer season, the church operated mainly during that season for its first 120 years. So rapid was the growth of the Flat Rock summer community during the 1830’s and 1840’s, however, that the parish membership outgrew the small chapel. In the early 1850’s, the decision was made to rebuild the church, doubling its size. The English chapel-style structure that stands today is, with only a few minor modifications, the church that was completed in 1852.
The tours are free but advance reservations must be made online through the church’s website, www.stjohnflatrock.org/tours. Space is limited for each tour.
The historically significant churchyard contains graves of distinguished political figures and local citizens as well as those of unnamed 19th-century enslaved persons. “As docents, we strive to communicate the sweep of what happened and how it shaped us, the good and the sometimes painful,” Morrice reflected. “We do like to remind visitors that St. John is not a museum, but a vibrant, welcoming church. We’re still moving forward, and welcome all who would like to make more history with us.”
The church is located at 1895 Greenville Highway. For more information call the church office at 828-693-9783 or visit www.stjohnflatrock.org.
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